


Running out of Time

by TriforceNinja



Series: Whumptober 2020 [4]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Attempted Murder, Body Horror, Cages, Fights, Gen, Hostage Situations, Kidnapping, Sylvain Jose Gautier Being An Idiot, Trapped, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 05:15:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26846515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TriforceNinja/pseuds/TriforceNinja
Summary: Sylvain received a letter to inform him that his elder brother, Miklan, had kidnapped his childhood friends. The demand was that Sylvain would come to Conand Tower and bring the Lance of Ruin alone. Once Sylvain arrived at the given destination and after delivering the hero’s relic, Miklan trapped him on the top floor, so they could fight to the death.Whumptober 2020 Challenge No 4. RUNNING OUT OF TIMECaged/Collapse Building
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd & Felix Hugo Fraldarius & Ingrid Brandl Galatea & Sylvain Jose Gautier, Sylvain Jose Gautier & Miklan
Series: Whumptober 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1953259
Kudos: 11
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Running out of Time

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: This story contains kidnapping, hostage situations, attempted murder, monster transformations, etc.
> 
> Also I would like to apologize for posting this late. It was suppose to be yesterday's Whumptober entry, but the story itself gotten more ambitious than I wanted it to be and my editor had ran into shenanigans.  
> Also, "Running out of Time" was only suppose to be a placeholder title. I am only using it because I couldn't think of a better title at the moment.  
> Anyway, enjoy the story.

Sylvain was being his usual self as he spent his time flirting with girls. After he picked up one chick, Cyril came over to deliver the redhead a letter. Sylvain took it from the young Almyran boy and opened it up. The Gautier boy’s face paled in horror as he read though the letter.

_‘To my spoiled brat of a brother,_

_I have captured the prince, the Galatea lass, and that whiny crybaby Fraldarius brat that always followed you around. If you want to see them again, bring me the Lance of Ruin and come alone. If you bring anyone with you, I won’t guarantee your friends safety. I’ll be waiting for you at Conand Tower._

_Don’t be late!_

_-Miklan’_

Sweat was pouring down Sylvain’s face as his hands clenched onto the letter and let out a cry. How did he not notice this before? The professor asked Sylvain yesterday about Dimitri’s whereabout and he had not been hounded by Ingrid to stop him from his skirt chasing ways recently. Heck, he did not even see Felix on the training grounds as of late. Sylvain was too busy fooling around with some ladies to even notice about his friends’ disappearance. He wanted to inform the professor about their abduction, but the letter stated that he should come alone. Anger had boiled within Sylvain because his brother was not being fair. The young Gautier believed that this was a trap set for him, but if he brought reinforcements, he would be endangering his friends. What bugged Sylvain the most was how Miklan was able to capture them to begin with. Dimitri was ridiculously strong for someone his size and Felix was incredibly aggressive to allow anyone to touch him. Even Ingrid could put up a good fight because Sylvain learned how capable she was the hard way. Worried about his friends’ safety, Sylvain decided to depart Garreg Mach as soon as possible without telling a single soul.

* * *

Before Sylvain could arrive at Conand Tower, he had to stop by House Gautier to retrieve the Lance of Ruin. When he finally arrived at the tower, Sylvain climbed up several flights of stairs until he came to a room close to the top floor. There he found his friends trapped in three separate cages. Dimitri was heavily restrained in irons, while Felix and Ingrid were bounded by rope. Each of them was gagged with a cloth tied around their mouths. They all looked towards Sylvain’s sudden arrival and tried to cry out to him through the gags. His friends were not necessarily crying for help. They were more trying to inform him to leave. Sylvain could not understand what his friends were trying to say, but before he could approach them, Miklan emerged from the shadows. He looked exactly what Sylvain remembered after he was kicked out of House Gautier. Long red hair, piercing hazel eyes and a scar that went diagonally across his face. Miklan was also wearing dark armour and he smirked evil at his brother’s arrival.

“Well, well, well, look who finally showed up.” He spoke in a gruff sinister tone.

Sylvain glared directly at his brother as he showed him a wrapped-up lance and said, “I brought you the stupid lance you asked! Now let my friends go!”

“You really think I would just take a random bundle?” Miklan spoke as he narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. “How would I know if that’s the Lance of Ruin and not some other cheap lance you picked up?”

Sylvain sighed as he undid the binds on the bundle and unwrapped the blanket concealing it. There he held a lance made of bones, with a crest stone attached in the center of the tooth-like blade. Miklan grinned like a mad man as he made his was over to Sylvain and snatched the Lance out of his hands. The elder Gautier examined the weapon in awe as his creepy smile grew wider.

“Alright, I did my end of the bargain. Now let my friends go!” Sylvain demanded his brother.

Miklan only replied with a maniacal laugh as he sadistically stared and the younger Gautier.

“The only thing you are receiving is your _doom!”_ He shouted as he lunged at Sylvain with the Lance of Ruin.

The younger Gautier narrowly dodged the attack and was about to head towards the door. Unfortunately for him, a group of bandits who happened to be there, shut the door, and locked it up. Sylvain heard the maniacal laugh of his brother behind him, who asked, “Do you really think you could escape, especially with your friends still locked here?” Miklan readied his stance as he pointed the legendary weapon towards his brother. “This is a fight to the death, you crest-bearing brat, and I am not going to let you leave alive!” he rushed over to run the Lance of Ruin at Sylvain. The younger Gautier managed to pull out his steel lance fast enough to block the attack. Miklan continued to push while glaring furiously at his little brother, as Sylvain kept fending him off. Sweat drops wear falling off both their faces as they staggered their breathing. But Miklan managed to gain the upper hand as he broke through Sylvain’s defences and stabbed him on the side. The young Gautier screamed after that blow as he recoiled back. Sylvain tried to ignore his pain as he blocked another attack from his brother. He continued to hold his own as he stared back at Miklan’s angry eyes. When the elder Gautier advanced again, Sylvain dodged and blocked again.

“Being quite a spineless coward, you spoiled little brat! Fight like a man!” Miklan growled as he pressed on.

Sylvain continued to dodge his attacks. But when he blocked another one Miklan’s attacks, Sylvain noticed that his brother was losing a lot of energy. The younger Gautier managed to parry Miklan off him and slashed at him across the body. Sylvain’s attack was not highly effective because of the armour Miklan was wearing cut off half the damage.

“Is that all you got?” the older brother taunted. “You really think you could defeat me with just a feeble attack like that?” he barked out a laugh. “You would have to do better than that!”

As Miklan readied the Lance of Ruin, the crest stone glowed as miasma spread throughout it. The elder Gautier stared at the malevolent energy with concern as it began to engulf him. During that time, Miklan’s body began to change form. His arms and legs had expanded into big muscular limbs with claws. The rest of the body was scaly with gigantic spikes poking out of his back. Miklan’s mouth enlarged and his teeth became sharp and pointy. His eyes had changed from human hazel eyes to demonic glowing red. He even grew a scaly tail. The figure that stood in front of Sylvain was no longer his brother. Instead, he saw a demonic beast. This monster tried to take a bite out of Sylvain, but he dodged the attack. The younger Gautier did not know how to deal with the beast his brother became. It was the first time he seen anything just like it. Sylvain continuously dodged most of the monster’s attacks until he noticed there was a set of keys underneath it.

_‘Those better be the keys that unlock the cages.’_ Sylvain thought to himself when he recalled his imprisoned friends. The question was how he was going to get at the keys if the monster was standing over them? Sylvain did not have many options, so he decided to attack the beast. He slashed the monster in the face with his lance, but the beast countered by whamming Sylvain with its claw. The young Gautier flew over the cages containing his friends. As he was struggling to pull himself up again, he looked directly at his friends, who stared frantically at him. When the beast lunged another claw at Sylvain, he rolled out of the way, but the talons managed to hook onto Felix’s cage. It threw the Fraldarius over to the west wall, which caused the cage to break. Worried about his friend, Sylvain rushed over to Felix. The Fraldarius teen managed to get cuts from the shards of the metal of the breaking cage.

When Sylvain was undoing the binds and removed the gag from his friend, Felix glared at him and yelled, “You irresponsible fool! Why did you come here? You are putting your own life in danger!”

“I can’t leave you, Felix!” Sylvain retorted. “I couldn’t let Miklan harm you, Dimitri and Ingrid.”

“He was planning to kill you!” Felix argued.

“Well…” Sylvain could not think of a great counter argument, but said, “Never mind! let’s just find a way to get the keys from that beast!”

The monster was about to strike the two men with its claw. Felix and Sylvain separated from each other and they both dodged. Felix then charged at the monster with his bare fists. Sylvain watched his friend in horror for his stunt and cried, “Felix, what are you doing?!”

“Shut up and focus on getting the keys!” Felix yelled as he dodged an attack from the beast. “I’ll distract this thing!”

Although still concerned about his friend’s safety, Sylvain focused on retrieving the keys. Felix continued to fight and dodged every attack thrown at him as he led the beast closer to the door. When the beast was slightly away from the keys, Sylvain thought it was the best opportunity to snatched them. But as he was about to do so, the beast’s tail whammed into him, which caused him to fly over to the back wall. The monster turned to look at Sylvain like he was a five-star meal. It was about to take a bite out of the Gautier, but then it felt a tingling on its back-left leg. It turned to glare at Felix, who was punching its limb with the Crest of Fraldarius activating. The beast then tried to take a bite of the Fraldarius, but Felix evaded the attack. Sylvain slowly struggled to get back on his feet as he kept his eyes on the keys. He advanced towards them and watched out for the monster’s tail. It nearly hit him again, but this time, he managed to retrieve the item. As he attempted to leave from that spot, the beast managed to kick him with its back-right leg. Sylvain flew a full meter back but still held onto the keys briefly after the landing. When the beast turned over to glance at the redhead, Felix continued to beat it up. When Sylvain noticed that his friend was closer to the cages, he held up the keys as he was ready to throw.

“Felix, catch!” He cried as he threw the keys over at the Fraldarius.

Felix watched as the keys flew over his direction and landed on the floor beside him. He collected them and glared at his friend.

“You fool! Why did you toss the keys my way!” Felix shouted. “I’m trying to fend off this beast!”

“Please… save Ingrid and Dimitri…” Sylvain replied weakly.

Felix groaned as he dodged another attack. “Do I have to do everything around here!”

After he evaded another claw thrown at him, Felix managed to get to Dimitri’s and Ingrid’s cages. He unlocked both, as the monster loomed over him. Without undoing their bounds, Felix dropped the keys and continued to attack the monster. Sylvain was slowly crawling his way over to the cages to meet up with Dimitri and Ingrid. Once he got there, he undid the binds on Ingrid first. Once she was free, Sylvain picked up the keys and unlocked the chains that bound Dimitri. They removed their gags and Ingrid began to say, “Sylvain! You made us worry! I should smack you for that!”

“Settle yourself, Ingrid. What matters is that we are free from our cramped prisons.” Dimitri informed his female friend.

As Felix was continued to distract the beast, he was standing near the door. When the monster tried to strike him with its right claw, Felix dodged out of the way as the blow collided with the door. It smashed right open, which alerted the other three friends.

“The door is open! We can leave!” Dimitri stated.

“Let’s get out of here quickly!” Ingrid determined.

Both she and Dimitri helped Sylvain onto his feet and they advanced to the door. As they got to the other side, Ingrid peeked her head back into the area and yell, “Felix, quit fighting that beast! We got to leave!”

Felix groaned in response, but he listened anyway. As he went past the door, the beast attempted to follow. It whammed its claw throw the entrance, but its whole body is too massive to pass through. The beast continued to bash, jump, or do anything to break it out of its prison, which caused the whole building to shake. The four childhood friends felt the world beginning to tremble as the tower began to fall apart.

“We need to get out of here quickly!” Dimitri cried.

His friends second that as they rushed down every flight of stairs they come across. They narrowly avoided falling objects and fractured floor. But it was trickier for Dimitri and Ingrid to avoid them while they were lugging Sylvain around. They managed to reach the exit and as they escaped, the tower crashed down. The four childhood friends watched what remained of the Conand Tower. There was only rubble and the beast crushed underneath. The monster then transformed back into Miklan Gautier and his arm laid on top of the Lance of Ruin. Sylvain struggled to move though the rubble to get to his brother as he looked down at him. Miklan’s body was not moving, nor was he breathing. Although Sylvain disliked his brother, he would be lying to say that he did not pity him. The younger Gautier collected the Lance of Ruin and made his way back to his friends. Both Ingrid and Dimitri looked at him with concerned eyes while Felix stared at the ground with his arms crossed.

“Sylvain, I know he wasn’t your greatest brother, but-” Ingrid inhaled and said, “I’m sorry…”

“No worries.” Sylvain tried to hide his feelings with a smile. “I’ll manage.”

Once the group returned to Garreg Mach, Professor Byleth gave Sylvain an earful for leaving the monastery unannounced and without informing of the issue. However, they were glad that all their students were safe, nonetheless. The thought of Miklan’s body still ran through Sylvain’s head. He still pitied his brother, but he mostly blamed the crest system for Miklan’s hatred. Sometimes Sylvain wished it were the other way around. If he were born with no crest while his brother did. But would that make his life any easier?

**Author's Note:**

> I would be posting Challenge No 5 shortly. Be on the lookout for that if you are interested.


End file.
